News

WILSON, N.C. - Barton College is pleased to welcome Gregg A. DeMar, managing director, Communications Sector for the IBM Corporation, as the featured speaker for the College's 107th Opening Convocation. The annual campus event is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 11 a.m. in Howard Chapel.

DeMar was appointed to his current position as managing director, Communications Sector for the IBM Corporation, in September 2000. In his current assignment, he has overall responsibility for leading and integrating IBM business activities across all IBM units in support of a Fortune 10 Communications Industry Corporate Client and its international affiliates.

Joining IBM in 1976, DeMar has since held a number of sales, management, and executive positions in Baton Rouge, Dallas, Raleigh, Detroit, and New York. Past assignments include director of marketing, trading area general manager, vice president - business partners channels, area general manager, vice president - worldwide RS/6000 UNIX server sales, and vice president for personal systems customer segment marketing.

DeMar is a graduate of Harvard University, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering and Applied Physics. He has served on a variety of community boards, including the United Way of Southeastern Michigan and INROADS for Metropolitan Detroit.

A member of the Barton College Board of Trustees since 1995, DeMar also serves on the Barton College Board of Trustees' Finance Committee and is the chair of the Business Programs Trustee Task Force. He also serves as IBM's Diversity Campus Executive for Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and is a member of Louisiana State University's College of Basic Sciences Advisory Council.

DeMar and his wife Hyacinth, make their home in Stamford, Conn. They have three children, Brent, Troy and Keri.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - Barton College is one of the best colleges and universities in the Southeast according to The Princeton Review. The New York City-based education services company selected Barton as one of 139 institutions it recommends in its "Best in the Southeast" section on its web site feature "2009 Best Colleges: Region by Region."

"We are very pleased to be recognized with this regional distinction," said Dr. Norval C. Kneten, president of Barton College. "This report reflects Barton's historic commitment to student success, and our recognition demonstrates the success of the College's focus on a unique Barton Experience for each of its students."

Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's publisher and editorial director, commended the schools named this year as their "regional best" colleges, "primarily for their excellent academic programs." "We selected [these schools] based on institutional data we collected from several hundred schools in each region, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of independent and high school-based college advisors whose recommendations we invite," said Franek. "We also take into account what each school's customers - their students - report to us about their campus experiences at their schools on our 80-question student survey. Finally, we work to have our annual roster of ‘regional best' colleges present a range of institutions in each region that varies by size, selectivity, character and locale."

The 139 colleges chosen by The Princeton Review for its "Best in the Southeast" designations are located in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Princeton Review also designated 212 colleges in the Northeast, 120 in the West, and 159 in the Midwest as best in their locales on the company's "2009 Best Colleges: Region by Region" section on its site. The 630 colleges named "regional best(s)" represent only about 25% (one out of four) of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges.

The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students to rate their own schools on several issues from the accessibility of their professors to the quality of campus food, and to answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life.

The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is a New York-based company known for its test preparation courses, books, and college admission and other education services.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.